In elementary screenwriting, “they” tell you to put the
protagonist into the deepest possible trouble at the outset, and then make it
get worse. The character has to discover
his own resources to survive and become something new. The trouble is, you have to like the
character.
As “Everything Must Go”, Nick (Will Ferrell) is getting his
severance package (and even a bonus) from his younger male boss, who is
reasonably nice about his booze problem.
He goes to his suburban Arizona home and his wife kicks him out. Content to keep his possessions outside and
live it up in the mild winter, a local cop prods him into selling all his
possessions in a yard sale, or else go to the tank. He has to give up everything up. He also has to hire a local overweight teen
at minimum wage to help with the sale and become an entrepreneur, and then
learn empathy for a pregnant neighbor.
Nick can't even get a hold of his own money, in a joint account. His wife has frozen it. Then she serves him divorce papers.
The question is, do you really like the character? Do you really see any value in his redemption? Maybe not in a comedy.
The 2010 comedy, from Dan Rush, Lionsgate and Ro0adside
Attractions, has this site.
The DVD offers a
short “In Character” in which Ferrell
explains the film.
For today’s (other) short film, consider “Democracy Starts
Here”, an eleven minute introduction to a visit at the National Archives in
Washington DC. The most interesting
mini-episodes concern the way descendants of Holocaust victims got the rights
to Nazi gold, and the way the Japanese Americans were treated during WWII.
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